Creep
by withyouandthemoon
Summary: My little piece of footnote to some of the lines (one in particular) from the Klaroline scenes in TO 5X06. Set around TVD 4x17, after Caroline killed the 12 witches (and Klaus dug 12 graves for her like the dutiful suitor that he was).


_The man I met back then terrified me. I was intrigued, but I never felt safe. Or relaxed. Or myself really. –Caroline Forbes, The Originals 5x06_

* * *

The days had long since passed when Caroline Forbes was still a fussy, irritable, _normal_ teenage girl who was not a fan of the woods. Or the dark.

To speak the truth she was never the out-door type of person. Sure, it was nice showing off her perfect body clad in a two-piece bathing suit by the falls, or flirting with some random boy around a bonfire, but other than that she'd much prefer her own room with her comfy bed and comfy clothes. Or the mall, really.

To her the woods was downright boring-it was all trees and dirt. And the woods after nightfall just spelled danger. She was the sheriff's daughter-she may not listen to everything her mom said, but she knew better than to venture into the dark wilderness on her own.

Yet right now, trudging through the woods in the middle of the night, she couldn't help but feel that things had irreversibly changed. A feeling with which she had gotten quite acquainted ever since she became a vampire.

This was not the first time she had experienced the pull of the dark.

She had thought that the saying about vampires being "creatures of the dark" was only metaphorical, that it had only been that way because not every vampire had a Bennett witch as a best friend to make them a daylight ring.

But every night as she lay in her bed, the darkness outside her window rattling her sills, calling to her like the Pied-Piper's tune, drilling into her pores and rousing a cold, crawling desire under her skin, she knew the saying to be true. She knew that it was in her nature to go out there and prey on whoever fell victim to the dark.

Most nights she just downed her bed-time blood bag and willed herself to sleep.

Not tonight though.

She had felt restless all day. She'd pegged it as stress over the whole Silas situation and tried to take it easy by skipping school and going shopping instead, but an inexplicable thirst was clawing from inside of her to the point where her fangs almost came out when she was standing near the sales girl.

And things only went downhill when night fell. Her vampire senses seemed extra-sensitive tonight, burning Caroline's nerve ends with each and every signal they latched onto. Caroline swore she could hear the rapid heartbeats of every damned bunny in a five-mile radius, _thump-thump-thumping_ like a stampede.

And every _thump_ was luring her out. The longer she stayed in, the longer the night dragged at her-for a moment Caroline almost felt actual pain on her skin, and she wondered if that was what the darkness actually wanted-to tear her apart with the ridiculous urges and feed on her dead blood.

However, as her feet led her steps and steps closer to a certain point on the map, it dawned on her that it wasn't the darkness that was after her blood.

Her own guilt was more like it.

As if to torture herself she walked over in a trance, from the first grave to the last. _One, two, three_ …she compulsively counted the marks of newly-dug-up soil in her heart, until she reached twelve. No tombstones, no names, no flowers. Just the smell of already-rotting bodies and death.

 _Twelve graves for twelve witches._

Caroline shuddered involuntarily like the first time she heard those cruel words. Cruel, because they were true. _She did this_ -for a friend, for herself, or just a misstep in the heat of the moment-it was her that drove the knife deep into the witch's heart. The feeling of the blade cutting through flesh was still vibrating in her palm.

For reasons she couldn't explain Caroline knelt before the twelfth grave and grabbed a handful of earth. She squeezed it hard until it seeped through her fingers like blood, a freezing sense of power whirling in her head.

"I've heard that revisiting their crime scenes was a typical behavior of perpetrators." A voice behind her startled her out of the limbo. She could recognize that voice anywhere, especially when it had been replaying in her mind for a whole day.

"What are you doing here?" Caroline jumped up from her spot and turned around to glare at him.

Klaus smirked, "not reminiscing my most recent kill, apparently."

Caroline sucked in a breath. She knew he was being purposefully harsh because he was still mad at her, but he had no right. "Only because there were too many you've lost track."

"Well maybe I should gather them in one place to be massacred then." He quirked an eyebrow, "sounds familiar?"

"Yes." Caroline bit out, "because you already did that. With your hybrids."

Klaus winced for a split second as if he'd been stabbed, flames flickering hot in his eyes like they always did before his attack. Caroline took an inconspicuous step back and bit down on her lips hard, bracing for the strike, which to her surprise never came.

Instead the smirk was plastered back on his face, "don't be like that, love. We had a spat," the corners of his lips turned a degree higher, "I'm over it already."

Caroline eyed him suspiciously, her tone still cold, "repeating your own words doesn't make them any more true."

Klaus huffed, "something you should take into your own consideration."

"What does that mean?" The shrill in her voice wasn't supposed to be there but Caroline couldn't help it. The answer was playing on mute in her mind like a horror movie and Klaus had to be the one to voice it out loud.

"Let me freshen up your memory, sweetheart." Slowly and menacingly he paced towards her like a predator, his eyes fixing her to the spot, "less than twenty-four hours ago, less than two minutes' run from here, you said, and I quote, 'there is no allure to darkness'. And now…" he opened his arms wide, "here you are. Alone in the darkness, accompanied by the darkest of them all."

Caroline's hands balled into fists at her sides, but her voice was low and small, "I didn't ask for your company."

Klaus' jaw clenched, his eyes roaming over her face as if trying to figure out the weakest spot to tear into. With one final step he closed the remaining distance between them and reached a hand into his jacket while the other grabbed her wrist. Caroline flinched at the touch, his fingers searing against her ice-cold skin, but his hold was surprisingly gentle as he pried her fingers open and wiped away the dirt with the handkerchief that he magically procured.

"What _are_ you doing here, Caroline?" He eyed her from under his lashes, his tone turned almost soothing.

 _So_ soothing that Caroline was seconds from relaxing into his touch and pouring her right-now-too-fragile-to-her-liking heart out.

In a swift move she snatched the handkerchief from him and finished wiping her hand roughly, "none of your business."

"It is if your actions play a part in _my_ plans of defeating Silas." Klaus furrowed his eyebrows, annoyed, "which you've already sabotaged by recklessly helping him complete the expression triangle."

Caroline threw the handkerchief on the ground, her own tempers flaring, "you know, this wouldn't even have happened if you didn't just stand there like a statue!"

"What did you expect me to do?" Klaus shouted back at her, "kill the witches for you?"

Caroline snapped her mouth shut before the word "yes" rolled out of her lips, which were trembling from the cutting realization. The unvoiced truth was now burning at her throat, bringing unbidden tears to her widened eyes.

Apparently her face had said it all, as Klaus' eyes turned cold, his lips curling into the shape of a sharp sickle, "I see." His velvety voice somehow propelled her backwards and Klaus was quick to follow, each step and each syllable more intimidating than the last, "so it's fine as long as _your_ dainty little hands and _your_ precious conscience stay clean?"

"No…" Caroline choked out but he didn't seem to have heard her.

"After all I'm all rotten black, and what's one more drop of poisonous blood to a sea of darkness, am I right, sweet Caroline?"

She was transfixed by his raging stormy eyes, unable to utter a word until the back of her knees hit something hard and solid. She numbly registered that it must be the big rock she sat on when Klaus was digging the graves for the witches.

The witches that she _murdered_.

"No! No, it's not fine!" Her sudden outburst surprised Klaus into silence, but she was too far gone to notice, assaulted by the myriads of emotions erupting out of her, the sheer force sending her catapulting into a moment of chaos, "it's not fine, if it's me, or you, or anyone else! It's bad and I hate it!"

She was hyperventilating by this point, her chest aching from tears, but not one drop leaked out. She felt like her whole heart was soaking in the salty water and she felt so, so thirsty. From the distance the heartbeats of some poor creature in the woods were still haunting her, _thump-thump-thumping_ and it took all her strength to push the vicious craving out of her, its invisible little claws scratching the inside of her veins, leaving her hurting all over.

Feeling completely drained, she sat back onto the rock when she realized that Klaus had been quiet all this time. She looked up to find him studying her with an unreadable expression-it always irked her not knowing what all his weird, complicated, I-know-something-that-you-don't looks meant, but this time she didn't even have enough energy to care.

"Three massacres," she threw him a wry smile, "crazy Professor Shane, you, me. I excuse none of us. So congratulations, I'm officially as bad as you."

"I doubt you could share my ranking on the supernatural evilness leader board, love." Klaus backed away a few steps to lean against the closest tree, arms crossed over his chest.

Caroline snorted, "I guess not. Or I wouldn't be here, up in the middle of the night, visiting the graves of my victims."

"So you think it was the guilt that drew you here?"

"Wasn't it? I've been unable to concentrate all day, I couldn't sleep, the memory of…of killing those witches kept popping into my mind. It's clearly eating at me." She shrugged a little helplessly, "that's what you get for committing homicide."

The smirk on his face grew wider, "we vampires have a complicated relationship with our preys, love."

"What are you getting at?" Her stomach churned at the glint in his eyes and she quickly snapped at him.

"Well I'm just saying, that we aren't in it just for the food. We also enjoy the kill." He slowly licked his lips and Caroline's eyes followed the trace of his tongue, the rich raspberry color discern-able even in the dark, "it's thrilling, having the power to take someone's life. To rouse fear and despair, smell it ripen in the air, and be the one to end it, whenever and however you want."

The last few words were so soft and silky Caroline could feel them clinging to his tongue, their shape warping and molding as he liked until they finally reached her hearing and it was almost like his tongue was on her ears, making her shiver with want.

Klaus chuckled, and the sound seemed to be resonating in her own rib cage, "consciously or not, we all have our own ways to memorize it. Like a token of sorts."

Caroline inhaled sharply, her voice but a whisper, "I'm not creepy like you."

"It's quite common actually." Klaus raised his eyebrows tauntingly, "I'll have you know that our dearest Stefan kept every single name of his victims on the wall of his apartment in the 20s."

"Yeah, when he was with you!" Caroline jumped up, inexplicable frustration once again flooding her.

And Klaus had the audacity to smirk in her face, "I guess I just have a knack for making people embrace their nature."

"It's not nature." Caroline glared at him, "it's sick."

The smirk finally disappeared from his lips as Klaus pinned her down with his intense eyes, irises glowing from suppressed anger, but hidden deeper was a trace of something akin to sadness, which Caroline disregarded as soon as detecting, "is that really how you see yourself, Caroline?"

To her credit Caroline managed to keep her accusing eyes on him, her lips locked into a thin line, her face perfectly stoic to mask the panic wrecking her inside.

He always did this. Dropping some preposterous nerdy questions to throw her off, to make her doubt herself and everything she'd ever believed in, to plant unrealistic ideas in her head that weren't there all her life.

If she wanted to die.

If she missed being human.

…how she saw herself as a monster.

And as always, he had no right to stir up her already self-struggling mind.

"You know what? I don't need you to psycho-analyze me and don't you dare pull that 'I'm gonna teach you to be a better vampire' crap on me." She marched over and pointed a finger to his chest, "pick someone else to be your pet project of _My Fair Baby-Vamp_!"

"Well, _my fair Caroline_ ," Klaus smiled devilishly around the slowly-uttered words, his eyes growing a shade darker as he pushed her pointy finger down with one hand and took a firm hold of her waist with the other, "now I'm tempted."

Before Caroline could protest they were flashing away to a clearing not far from there, and Klaus had a scruffy-looking young man pinned to obviously his own car when Caroline was still registering their surroundings.

"Pleasure meeting you, mister." He was standing upright and relaxed, even bowing a little, and the civilized tableau would have convinced anyone if not for his right hand gripping hard on the man's neck and the strangled screams that were squeezing through his crushed throat, "it would be nice if you stayed quiet for now."

All voices were instantly gone from the young man as if someone had hit pause on him, an eerie silence falling on the clearing like the moonlight that was absent that night.

"What are you doing?" Caroline rushed over but was interrupted by Klaus shushing her.

"Listen." He whispered by her ear, his breath tickling the skin along the side of her neck.

Caroline briefly wondered if she was compelled like the poor dude pinned to his car, because her own hyper-active senses followed his instructions immediately. There it was, in the drowning silence, that particular noise that had bothered her, disquieted her, called to her all through the night.

 _Thump. Thump. Thump._

Her sense of smell caught up even before her brain does, as her fangs painfully but eagerly broke out of her aching gums for a sweet taste of the warm liquid pumping through those veins that were just within her touch and she felt her face change. Caroline snapped her eyes shut and took long, deep breaths, trying to control herself like she'd done thousands of times.

Willing the hunger away was like hanging onto a cliff with the tips of her fingers. It was unacceptable to let go, but also impossible to pull herself fully up. The only way was to hang in there as long as she could, with every set of muscle and every shred of will power.

It was the single most brutal ordeal she'd ever had to endure-even worse than torture, because she had to deal with it every second of every freaking day.

Well, some times worse than others.

When she finally opened her eyes Klaus' smirking face was inches from hers, a sadistic gleam to his eyes, "you see, sweetheart, every time you let the beast out of the cage, it becomes harder to shut it back in."

Caroline felt cold all over, her breaths ragged and raw through her closing throat, "what do you mean?"

But she already knew what he meant, like she always did. She just didn't know if it would be less disturbing to hear it from him, or herself.

Clearly tonight Klaus was in no mood to indulge her. With his eyes steadily trained on hers he reached a hand out and tore the young man's chest right open, the blood splattering over the three of them as the man's face contorted into a grotesque picture of extreme pain without sound, his legs giving out from the unbearable agony while Klaus held him up with his other hand still gripping his neck.

The smell of fresh blood permeated the air, but all Caroline could focus on was the sound of a beating human heart, doubled in volume, drumming in her blood-hazed head.

"You heard that all along, didn't you?" Klaus licked the drops of blood which landed on the corner of his mouth, his own fangs baring, "deny it all you want, love, but you got wired from yesterday's killing. You were drawn here not by guilt, but desire."

No longer able to push back her fangs, Caroline hissed at him through the sharpness in her mouth, not caring if she cut herself along the way, the anger the only thing that was keeping her increasing urges at bay, "why didn't you tell me in the first place? Why didn't you-"

"What?" Klaus barked a laugh, "whisk you away? Save you from the beast inside you? Or should I say, the beast that you are?" He lifted a finger and stroked lightly under her eyes, grinning with fake-innocence, "now why would I do that, Caroline?"

Caroline batted his hand away fiercely, "get away from me!"

"Contrary to what you might believe, love, I'm not here to teach you, or save you, or corrupt you even. You need none of those." Klaus stuck his chin out defiantly, and even in her unbridled anger and bloodlust Caroline was still momentarily distracted by his delicious jaw line, "you already are a true vampire. You are just fighting it. But guess what? That fight _is_ a part of vampirism. Always has been."

Caroline opened her mouth ready to protest, but couldn't find the words. Her mind was turned upside down by his last words, and more importantly the accompanying look in his eyes of long suffering and ancient grief. A million questions crammed into her head like a whirlwind, spinning and hollering nonstop.

Had _he_ fought against it? Was he still…fighting?

Sensing her confusion, Klaus on the other hand feigned surprise, "you think it's pitch black in the darkness? Oh, sweetheart," he shook his head and chuckled, the sound chilling Caroline to the bones, and for the first time ever she felt young and naïve in his presence, something that bothered her more than she would ever admit, "but don't you see? It's also the flickers of light struggling to resist," he looked down at the young man whose eyes were already dimming from the blood loss, and carelessly sliced the side of his throat open with a lengthened fingernail, "and how they are suffocated to naught."

The sight of the thin stream of blood trickling down from the wound played in slow motion in her vampire eyes and the temptation was overwhelming. Everything was red, everything smelled like blood and her eardrums hurt from the excessive heartbeats. "You are doing all this…just to prove a point?"

Klaus didn't answer her question. His eyes were back on her, mesmerized and awed, the way they were when he showed her his precious art collection, the way they were whenever he was alone with her, when the rare silence took over their constant bickering and acting, "your face is beautiful like this, Caroline." His voice was low and thick, dark and soft, like the night itself, "the veins…ebbing and flowing, like tides."

She found herself inching forward, towards his voice or the man's blood, she wasn't sure. In the blink of an eye her hands were on the man's shoulders holding him down, her lips mere breaths from the wound on his neck and she could already taste the stench of iron on her tongue. She could feel Klaus hovering over her at the side, his fingers threading through her hair, reminding her of the night that she fed from him.

The memory only fueled her thirst further.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Her breaths were coming out in tiny gasps as she held on to the last of her strength to restrain the bloodlust, "why me?"

Klaus lowered his head till his lips were mere inches from hers, the yellow light in his eyes burning her cheek, "so you'd rather I do this to someone else?"

 _Would she?_ Would she wish the amount of fear and struggle on another? Would she rather he took his intense eyes and gentle hands and hot breaths all away, to anyone but herself?

Caroline could no longer think straight. She couldn't even tell which was closer-his perfect lips, or the beating pulse right in front of her.

Eventually her most primal instinct won over and her lips were on the open gash, warmed by the fresh running blood, every cell waking up from the satiating sensation. As she closed her eyes and let her fangs descend, she heard Klaus whispering in her ear, "you like it, don't you?"

As if stricken by lightning she jerked back with a start, her whole body trembling from the backlash of the bloodlust being so drastically reined in. She glanced at Klaus, who had a half-smile on his blood-smeared face. The beast was still roaring inside her, clawing and scratching without care, and Caroline's voice was weak but final, "doesn't mean I have to act on it."

With that she flashed away as fast as her tired legs could carry her. In her wake she could vaguely hear the sound of Klaus tearing into the man's flesh and feel his eyes burning into her back all through her retreat, but she failed to see that his lips landed on the exact spot that hers had grazed seconds ago.

Maybe she'd never know.


End file.
